Faith on the hardwood

Junior Bodden came off the bench with a lot of eyes on him.

The nearby rivals of Aplington- Parkersburg and Dike-New Hartford were clashing in Parkersburg on Jan. 23 and A-P's gym was packed to the rafters with red and black or blue and white.

Bodden didn't know a lot of people when he first arrived in Parkersburg from the island of Roatán off the north coast of Honduras as a foreign-exchange student.

But two people in attendance on Tuesday know Bodden very well: Lee and Elizabeth Mann, mentors of various aspects of Junior's life from a young age who arrived in Iowa with their son, Tommy, to see Junior.

They had watched Bodden play basketball in Honduras, but to see him fly around the court on offense and defense was still something special.

"My heart was beating so fast," Elizabeth Mann said. "I couldn't believe it was Junior, he was playing so good."

Read the full story in the February 7 edition.

Parkersburg Eclipse News-Review

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